The most significant science fiction and fantasy books of the last
50 years? The Science Fiction Book Club thinks so, and
Ian Hamet
has some comments. I have some comments of my own, some of which are
comments on his comments. To wit, he says,

Now let’s peruse 11 through 20. I read SF avidly, and am utterly
unfamiliar with The Children of the Atom (number 14),
or Cities in Flight
(number 15), though the title of the former sounds familiar, and I’ve
read some stories by the author of the latter. But then we have number
16, Terry Pratchett‘s The Colour of Magic.
I’ve never gotten into Pratchett, but isn’t this one of his lesser works?

I can only assume they wanted to reference Pratchett’s Discworld series
and rather than choose between the many excellent possibilities, they
just chose the first one. It’s OK, but Pratchett gets much, much
better. Me, I’d have chosen Wyrd Sisters instead.

Cities in Flight is a collection of four short novels, of
which the first is marginal, the middle two are pretty good, and the last
is OK (it’s basically a continuation of the third one). The first novel
talks about the invention of a space drive that’s capable of lifting
entire cities into space effortlessly, providing both motive power and
pressure containment; the remaining three take place in the world that
results. It’s dated; in one book germanium is a treasure metal because
they make transistors out of it, and the drive on particular city is
so old it still uses vacuum tubes. But it’s good stuff, a book I
discovered in my teens and still pick up now and again.

I have never heard of The Children of the Atom, and I’ve
been reading this stuff voraciously for thirty years.

Ian also wonders where Poul Anderson is, and mentions
Three Hearts and Three Lions; I have to agree. If you’re
speaking of influence, I don’t see how you can omit it and still
include Michael Moorcock’s Stormbringer. Moorcock
made a career out that one book by Anderson. He also thinks that
Robert
A. Heinlein‘s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
should be there, and again I agree.

But I’ve got some problems of my own with this list. I can’t argue with
the inclusion of Neuromancer, given that it spawned an entire
sub-genre, even though I found it possible to read. Including
John Crowley’s book Little Big is silly; it’s got
lots of style, but it didn’t make much sense the first time through and
I’ve never managed to get through it again. The most significant thing
about Dhalgren is that most people can’t get through it.
I never saw anything special in either Timescape or
Gateway, and whatever the author has done since,
The Sword of Shannara is an egregious piece of derivative
hackwork (an opinion I’ve held since I read it as a young, not
particularly discerning Tolkien fan).

And then there are the omissions: where is
Lois McMaster Bujold? If I’m not mistaken, she’s won more
Hugo awards than anybody but Heinlein; surely at least one of
her Miles Vorkosigan books should be listed (I nominate
A Civil Campaign). Where’s C.S. Lewis?
They might be kid’s books, but any of the seven books in “The Chronicles
of Narnia” is a darn sight better than The Sword of Shannara.
Where’s Steven Brust? Where’s Neil Gaiman?
Good grief, where’s L.E. Modesitt? And though I’ve given
up on Robert Jordan, you can’t deny his presence in the field.

I’m glad to see Cordwainer
Smith listed, though. The book The Rediscovery of Man is a
fairly recent anthology of all of his short fiction, and deserves a
spot on your shelf.